Family IT Guy Podcast

Family IT Guy
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Parenting

Ben Gillenwater helps families protect children from digital dangers, bringing 30 years of cybersecurity expertise to the parenting journey. His background includes working with the NSA and serving as Chief Technologist of a $10 billion IT company, where he built global-scale systems and understood technology's risks at every level. His mission began when he gave his young son an iPad with "kid-safe" apps—only to discover inappropriate content days later. Despite his deep technical background, Ben realized that if protecting children online was challenging for him, it must be even more difficult for parents without his expertise. Through Family IT Guy, Ben creates videos and articles that help parents and kids learn how to leverage the positive parts of the internet while avoiding the dangerous and risky parts. His approach bridges the knowledge gap between complex technology and practical family protection, making digital safety accessible to everyone.

  1. 1d ago ·  Video

    Meta’s Child Safety Settlement Leaves the Main Risks in Place

    Meta’s child safety settlement leaves addictive feeds and messages from strangers available to kids. I explain why I don’t think the agreement addresses the main sources of harm, what its time limits actually cover, and what parents can do with the controls already on their devices. I also discuss age checks, privacy, who receives the settlement money, and why showing our kids how we manage our own phone use matters. Recorded during my September 2, 2026 livestream. Read the presentation and court filing: https://www.familyitguy.com/meta-settlement Chapters 0:00 Will this settlement protect kids? 1:07 Addictive feeds and messages from strangers 4:39 Time limits and the optional chronological feed 8:46 What I would change at Meta 13:11 Parents leading by example 17:23 Age checks, privacy and government control 21:41 What Meta admitted and who gets paid 25:24 Who can enforce the agreement 26:36 Why the safety message matters Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description Website: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  2. Sep 3 ·  Video

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Sep 2 2026

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Sep 2 2026

  3. Aug 31 ·  Video

    How to Report an Online Predator: Two Ways to Get Help

    If someone targets your child online, here's who's already looking for them and exactly how to report it. I'm Ben, the Family IT Guy - a dad and a cybersecurity expert with 30 years of experience. I made this video in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Know2Protect campaign. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the part of DHS with dedicated federal agents and computer forensic analysts who spend every day finding and stopping the people who exploit kids online - but they can only act on threats that get reported. In this video I walk through a real case: a teenage boy was sextorted (an online predator posed as another kid, got him to send a private photo, then threatened to share it unless he paid). He told his mom, she reported it, and a federal agent was at their door within 48 hours. That's the system working - the piece missing for most families is knowing it exists. If a predator targets your child, there are two ways to report it: Know2Protect Tip Line: 1-833-591-KNOW (5669) NCMEC CyberTipline: https://report.cybertip.org Before anything happens, go to https://know2protect.gov and take the Pledge2Protect with your kids. It walks your family through how predators actually operate, the warning signs to watch for, and practical safety steps you can put in place together. Chapters: 0:00 A message to predators 0:32 A message for parents 1:02 Meet Ben, the Family IT Guy 1:23 You're not alone: meet HSI 1:48 A real case: sextortion stopped in 48 hours 2:43 How to report: two ways to get help 3:25 What you can do right now 4:04 Take the Pledge2Protect, then share it Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Website: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #Know2Protect #Pledge2Protect #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  4. Aug 20 ·  Video

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 19 2026

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 19 2026

  5. Aug 13 ·  Video

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 12 2026

    Keep Your Kids Safe Online - Weekly Q&A - Aug 12 2026

  6. Aug 11 ·  Video

    You’re the Product, Not the Customer (The Paid, Private Internet)

    The apps are free, the games are free, email and search and videos are free. But free is not really free. The payment is your family's data, time, and attention. There is another internet where you pay a few dollars and become the customer instead of the product, and here is what it costs and where to start. One question sorts the whole internet: how does a company make its money? If the answer is advertising, the product being sold is your attention, and the app is built to collect as much of it as it can. If the answer is subscriptions, you are the customer, and the company stays in business by keeping you happy. Ben walks through the paid, privacy-respecting options by category: email like Proton or Fastmail for about ten to twenty dollars a month, search like Kagi for about five dollars a month, messaging like Signal, which is free and run by a nonprofit, and paid kids' games without the ads and tracking built into free ones. He also explains how to check a "we're private" claim: open source, which means the app's code is public so outside experts can inspect what it actually does. You do not have to switch everything at once. Start with one, like search, then try getting your close friends and family onto Signal with you. Proton: https://proton.me Fastmail: https://www.fastmail.com Kagi: https://kagi.com Signal: https://signal.org Chapters: 0:00 Free isn't free 0:37 The one question that sorts the internet 1:07 The paid alternatives, category by category 1:47 How to tell honest apps from dishonest ones 2:20 Start with one change Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

  7. Aug 6 ·  Video

    How to Make Video Games Safe and Actually Good for Your Kids

    Most parents feel stuck on video games: ban them and your kid feels left out, allow them and you worry about who's on the other end of the chat. Devyn Ricks has spent her whole life in games and now runs Miss Devyn's Video Game Universe, where a team of teachers hosts moderated online gaming clubs for kids. She's also a mom of four. In this conversation she walks through how she decides which games her own kids play, why she's a hard pass on Roblox, the simple signal that tells you a game is doing more harm than good, and how to check whether any game is safe even if you've never picked up a controller. We also get into why a console beats an iPad, which system to buy at each age, and why teaching kids the "why" protects them long after the rules stop working. If gaming is a fight in your house, this one is for you. Chapters: 0:00 Meet Miss Devyn and her video-game clubs 2:14 What the clubs actually do (and why community matters) 13:23 Games are neutral: how you use them is everything 15:16 Why she's a hard pass on Roblox, and reading your kid's cues 18:38 If a game is free, your child is the product: console vs iPad 24:52 How to vet any new game (research, chat settings, observe) 31:03 The hard truth about who's online, and staying involved 34:32 Skills, not rules 38:16 What game system to buy at every age 48:09 The biggest misconception about kids who game 53:49 One piece of advice: play the game with your kid Find Devyn: Miss Devyn's Video Game Universe — missdevyn.com YouTube: @MissDevynsVGU TikTok: @MissDevynGames Classes on Outschool: search "Miss Devyn" Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication. Learn the problems, protect your family, start with yourself. Get the iPhone Parental Controls guide: familyitguy.com

  8. Aug 4 ·  Video

    Should You Accept or Reject Cookies? What the Pop-Up Does

    Every website asks you to accept or reject cookies, and most of us click Accept just to clear the box. Clicking Reject barely helps either. Here is what the pop-up actually does and the free change that does more for your family's privacy than the button ever will. A cookie is a small file a website saves on your device so it can recognize you. Some cookies are useful, like the one that keeps you logged in or remembers your cart. Tracking cookies are the problem: they follow you from site to site and build a profile of what you read, shop for, and watch, which advertisers pay for. The pop-up is left over from privacy laws the ad industry has already worked around, so even Reject leaves you tracked in other ways. The real fix is a browser that blocks trackers for you on every site. On iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Safari already does this. On Windows or Android, use Firefox instead of Chrome or Edge, and set it as the default on your devices and your kids' devices. Then tell your kids why you changed it. The lesson is bigger than cookies: everything you do on the internet should be treated as public. Chapters: 0:00 The cookie question 0:28 What a cookie actually is 1:03 Why clicking Reject barely helps 1:32 The free fix: a private browser 2:12 What to tell your kids Watch the whole series, How the Internet Really Works: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc3jDQHQdQek More in this series: It Started With Bacon (How Free Apps Make Money): https://youtu.be/FQbVOHcQRME The Cloud Is Someone Else's Computer: https://youtu.be/NsYAPKyJhXg Should You Accept or Reject Cookies?: https://youtu.be/EEt33DXh--g You're the Product, Not the Customer: https://youtu.be/UWBA-VcLOGE Family IT Guy helps parents protect their kids from the two biggest digital dangers: addictive algorithms and anonymous communication, and the ways AI is making both worse. Ben Gillenwater spent 30 years in cybersecurity, and he teaches this as a parent in the same trenches you are. iPhone Parental Controls Masterclass: https://www.familyitguy.com/iphone-masterclass Website and free guides: https://www.familyitguy.com Listen to the Family IT Guy Podcast: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/family-it-guy-podcast/id1831912044 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72yZUVsOqdDk7en5FS9U8g #parenting #onlinesafety #digitalparenting #kidsonline #cybersecurity #familyitguy

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Ben Gillenwater helps families protect children from digital dangers, bringing 30 years of cybersecurity expertise to the parenting journey. His background includes working with the NSA and serving as Chief Technologist of a $10 billion IT company, where he built global-scale systems and understood technology's risks at every level. His mission began when he gave his young son an iPad with "kid-safe" apps—only to discover inappropriate content days later. Despite his deep technical background, Ben realized that if protecting children online was challenging for him, it must be even more difficult for parents without his expertise. Through Family IT Guy, Ben creates videos and articles that help parents and kids learn how to leverage the positive parts of the internet while avoiding the dangerous and risky parts. His approach bridges the knowledge gap between complex technology and practical family protection, making digital safety accessible to everyone.

Information

  • Creator
    Family IT Guy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Family IT Guy Podcast

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